Larly109

I have spent my entire life being overweight or obese. I was a cute and chunky toddler who became an overweight child and morbidly obese adult. My eating habits have never been great. I have long preferred fast food and desserts to a healthy home cooked meal. I have had some success with weight loss in the past by cutting out all simple sugars and exercising like crazy, but have not been able to maintain it for any length of time. My decision point came this past summer when my Primary Care Doctor was going over my most rcent bloodwork results and noted that I had moved from being pre-diabetic (which I had been for at least 8 years) to a Type 2 Diabetic. I had been plugging along with Metformin, but my poor eating habits finally caught up to me. It was at that appointment I asked for a referral to be evaluated for WLS. There is one local doctor doing bariatric surgery, but he does not perform gastric bypass, which I knew was the surgery I wanted. So I made an appointment to attend an information seminar in the neighboring city and started the process.
 
Once I attended the seminar, things moved fairly quickly. I completed all the paperwork, signed release authorizations, for my doctors and waited for further instructions. I attended the seminar in July, saw the psychologist and dietician at the end of August and had my consultation with the surgeon on September 3rd. My surgery was scheduled for the 22nd of September. I was quite nervous for surgery as I had never experienced it before. Everyone at the hospital was so kind, patient and caring which made the process much less scary. My surgery went well and was completed in about 90 minutes. I woke up in recovery in more pain than I expected - mostly related to the carbon dioxide used to inflate my abdomen for the laparascopic procedure. Fortunately, I had a PCA Morphine drip to get me through the worst of the pain. I was out of surgery at about 9:00 AM and was up and walking by 2:00 PM. The walking helped work both the carbon dioxide and anesthesia out of my system and I no longer need the Morphine by that evening. I was still receiving Toradol every 6 hours, and my pain was well managed. Right after surgery, my biggest complaint was a very dry mouth but it slowly improved over the next 24-36 hours as I was allowed to start sucking on ice chips and then sipping on water. I struggled some with swallowing in the first few days, which I have learned is fairly normal. I also had an episode of pretty bad heartburn during the afternoon of the first day. I think it was the chicken broth - too salty. I was given IV Prevacid and that took care of it.
 
Because my stomach is fairly large, I had to have a JP Drain for a few days. I was supposed to have it for a full week, but ended up needing to have it removed about 4 days after surgery after the tubing was blocked by a clot that I couldn't clear. The removal of the drain was a big relief and made sleeping much easier. My staples were removed 8 days after surgery at my first offical follow-up appointment. The wounds are still a bit tender, but not bad overall. My energy level isn't great - but I can get up and walk for 30-60 minutes at a very slow pace and do ok. My diet has been advanced to full liquids with slow advance into purees so the energy level should get better. My doctor wants me to work up to a 1000 calorie diet to keep my energy up as I go back to work next Monday.
 
I've had emotional ups and downs as expected, but overall I'm doing fairly well. I'm extremely blessed to have a very supportive family to encourage me on this journey.